


The Open-Ended Spanner (This is Part One, I don't know what happened???)

by AlabasterMoonbeam



Series: Different Names for Wrench [3]
Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Adorable, Cute Wrench is Cute, F/M, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, I love Wrench and I want him to be my boyfriend, I'm sure my husband wouldn't mind!, Pre-Romance, Watch Dogs 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 03:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11199957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlabasterMoonbeam/pseuds/AlabasterMoonbeam
Summary: Wrench gets to know the New Girl, Kirby.  Kirby likes both hacking and flowers, and other stuff, too!





	The Open-Ended Spanner (This is Part One, I don't know what happened???)

New girl didn't talk much. Mostly she communicated via facial expression. That was something Wrench got, at least a little. But, and this was the weird thing, he wanted to hear her voice. Usually it didn't matter to him if someone talked or not, but this time… This time, he wanted to get to know her. She was different than the donut shop girl from a few months ago. The girl from the donut shop had been kinda the perfect crush, an excellent MPDG, but after a few dates it became clear that Wrench’s mask wasn’t working for her. It was creepy, not cool, and she really just thought it was a way to get her interest. It wasn’t.  
And then, not long after they took down Dusan, they got this new girl. She was kinda taking the place of Horatio - no, she wasn’t, she was just filling the skill set that was left when he… yeah. Sitara had tried her best, but she was better with the DedSec Image. So, in came the new girl, the tactical-coordinator or something, to help better distribute the lovely DedSec chaos.

Kirby looked around herself. It was time to get out again. If she didn’t wander the city she felt like she couldn’t do her job. Sitting in front of her monitor, Kirby set up a few alerts to go to Marcus and Wrench if they wanted to complete anything. Other than that, it was time to get out and about. Shrugging out of her ratty sweatshirt, she missed the look that Wrench gave her, LED mask flickering between pound signs and exclamation points. She tapped Sitara on the shoulder, wriggled her fingers “bye” and headed upstairs. She wasn’t sure where she was headed, but she wanted to walk, at least at first.

Wrench watched her with unabashed interest, staring at her carelessly tossed sweatshirt long after she had left. In fact, it was only when Marcus nudged him that he snapped back to the present.  
“Whoa, uh, hey man, what’s up?” Wrench wasn’t sure what Marcus had said.  
“Uh, just asking you if you were thinking of getting outside for a while? Maybe taking a walk?” Marcus looked at Wrench with a knowing glint in his eyes.  
“Man, what?” Wrench figured it was better to get it all out now.  
“You are interested in Kirby,” Josh’s voice came from his station, “it would be better if you just did something about it.”  
“Yeah,” even Sitara jumped in, “either go talk to her or get over it.”  
The words were hard, but necessary. Wrench looked at Sitara, then Marcus, then the green hood of Josh’s sweatshirt.  
“Was I that obvious?”  
“Uh, yeah,” Marcus laughed, “you have been watching her really closely for at least the last month.”  
“Dude, she’s only been here for a month!” Wrench walked over to the Wrench Bench, contemplating what he was going to do.

When Kirby came back in, she looked suspiciously at her desk. Something had been changed. She circled it like a shark, trying to see what it was, but nothing was clear to her, just a general different-ness she couldn’t put her finger on. Finally giving up, she rinsed an empty beer bottle out and put in her single flower purchase: one, perfect narcissus. She placed it next to her computer where she could look at it, but also where it was in clear view of Wrench. Kirby knew it was stupid; he had a thing for the donut shop girl, and really she should be happy for him. She didn’t know quite what the deal was with the mask, but she understood the need to hide. Wasn’t that why she was… the way she was?  
Sitting at her desk, Kirby realized what was different. Someone had changed her chair. It used to rock and tip because one leg was shorter than the others, and she had “solved” the problem by stuffing a wad of paper towels under it and accepting that the damn thing still tipped. But now, sitting there, she felt that something had been changed. Looking at the chair legs, Kirby saw that one had a largish patch welded to it.  
“I’ll have it spruced up a bit more in a couple days. Just waiting on a few things,” Wrench’s digitized voice came over her shoulder. Slowly, Kirby turned to look at him.  
“You did this?” She sounded so skeptical.  
“Yeah, I noticed it. You could have said something.”  
“Oh,” Kirby was quiet, then added quickly, “thanks, Wrench.”  
She tried not to read into it. Just a friend doing something for a friend. Nothing more or less. Right?

“Dude, you need to chill,” Marcus laughed as Wrench paced the garage.  
“The chair was easy, man,” Wrench worried, “but I don’t think she got it, ya know?”  
“Man, you don’t see the way she looks at you when your back is turned. She likes you,” Sitara joined in, lounging against a wall, “what are you going to do next?”  
“I was thinking of making her something. Maybe.” Wrench felt all messed up, like he was on a real bad trip. It was weird, because aside from his general anarchist ways, he mostly drank. Oh, sure, during Swelter Skelter he’d had some excellent fun, but on the daily, it was mostly drinking.  
“Whatever, I’m going for a drive.”

Kirby was walking outside, wishing she had just called for a car, but pretending that she didn’t mind the walk. Pulling out her phone, she checked to see if it was still dead. Yep, it was. Damn it. It was about 2:45 and she had been out all night. Initially she was with some friends, then she’d gone to an off-shoot of the Butterfly Lounge, and now she was walking along the streets with a dead phone. Dressed for a club. This sucked.  
Some of the people who shouted at her were cat-calling and wolf-whistling, but the majority were calling out insults and trying to shame her. Oh, and some thought she was a prostitute. When she got back to HQ she was going to ask Wrench about rigging up a bathtub. She could really use a nice long soak and her apartment (if you could call it that) had a tiny shower stall and not much else.  
Deep in thought about a jasmine-scented bubble bath, it took Kirby a while to realize that a matte black Amargosa Turbo had pulled up beside her and was matching her pace.

“Yo, I’m not a hooker!” Kirby yelled, without looking at the driver.  
“Yeah, you know, I got that,” came the unexpected, electronic reply.  
“Wrench?”  
“Hop in, babe, and tell me what happened,” Wrench could hardly believe he’d just said that, but Kirby was getting into the car. He looked over as she snapped her seatbelt on, just in time to see her initially modest skirt ride up, giving him a delicious view of her thigh and the… “Dost mine eyes deceive me or are those tattoos you have?” Wrench adopted a very fake British accent as his hand reached out of its own accord to touch her skin. He jerked it back before he made contact but it was still strange. He saw Kirby looking at his hand, but she didn’t say anything about it, just, “Uh, yeah, I have a lot, actually. Mostly, uh, hidden.” Was that a little nervousness he heard? Wrench peeled away, driving faster than was absolutely necessary, but he suddenly wanted to show off.  
“So,” he cleared his throat, “what else you got? Hello Kitty on your left butt cheek?”  
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Kirby smirked at him, pulling up the hem of her skirt to reveal more tattoos disappearing into a pair of boxer-brief type shorts.  
“Wait, you’re wearing shorts under your dress?” Wrench drifted into the other lane while looking at her, but it was early enough that no one was driving.  
“What? It’s not that weird,” Kirby shifted, a little uncomfortable.  
“I don’t know any other person who would do that. It’s kinda weird,” Wrench was determined to keep this conversation going. She never talked to him for so long.  
“No, it isn’t.”  
“Yeah, it really is.”  
This went back and forth for a while, him insisting that it was kinda weird with her defending her feeling that, no, it wasn’t.  
“Fine, whatever, it’s weird,” Kirby finally said, “but I am not here for the chub-rub, ok, and leggings or tights just weren’t gonna cut it tonight. Ok? Happy now?”  
“Chub-rub? As in…” Wrench let the sentence dangle in the air.  
“Not whatever your perverted mind is thinking of, Wrench, just…” Kirby went silent.  
“Ok, so, what is it, really?” Wrench gave her a question mark look.  
“It's when your thighs rub together and chafe. I'm guessing that's not something you struggle with.” Kirby was glad it was dark. Explaining chub-rub was not particularly enjoyable.  
“Huh, cool. Not the chub-rub, but the shorts.” Wrench gave her two cheerful carets. Then he cleared his throat.  
“You wanna get breakfast? I know a place,” a caret and tilde grin, and Wrench’s most winning head tilt.

It wasn't really a restaurant. It was a bar, but Wrench knew the owner so he made them a couple fried eggs and toast. Sitting on the roof of the bar while the sun came up wasn't bad. Sure, he had to turn away to eat his egg sandwich, but really it wasn't a big deal. Wrench was pretty happy about all this.  
“So, things are good? You seem happy.”  
The carets dissolved into a pair of underscores.  
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Wrench had forgotten how expressive his mask could be, “You?”  
“Well, this is not how I expected my evening to go,” Kirby didn't see the sad slashes on Wrench's mask as she continued, “but really, this is so much better. I'm really glad it was you in that car.”  
“As opposed to, what, a total stranger?”  
“No, doofus,” Kirby nudged Wrench, then looked right into his mask, “As opposed to anyone else. Sitara or Marcus, or… anyone.”

Kirby was tired; she'd been working almost round the clock, only taking naps on the couch. It was actually not so much that she had a lot of work to do, but she knew she was going to need to jet for a long weekend pretty soon. She'd already checked with Sitara and she'd given it the ok, while telling Kirby that she didn't have an actual boss, so the check was just a formality. Still, Kirby didn't want any problems while she was gone, so she'd set up a queue to allow everyone to accept jobs as they wanted and needed. It rendered her pretty superfluous, at least for a few days. With all of that set, Kirby left. She did it while everyone was out, even Josh. She didn't want to explain where she was going or why.

Wrench was the first to say something. He was fixing up something on Kirby’s desk when he said, muffled from under the desk, “Where's Kirby?”  
“She's out for a couple days,” Sitara said, deliberately not looking in his direction.  
Wrench didn't say anything, just got out from under her desk and left, phone in hand. It didn't take him long to zero in on her location, but he was still a little surprised, but headed for Alta Plaza Park.  
When he found her, he just watched as she walked with a woman who must have been her mom. It was strange, but as the two women walked along, Kirby saw Wrench. He saw her turn to the woman, then, to his horror, they headed over to him.  
“Mom, this is Wrench,” Kirby introduced them, “Wrench, this is my mother, Elizabeth.”  
Wrench shook the woman's hand, not sure how she'd react to his mask. He was in for a surprise, “Oh, you look just like she described you!” Elizabeth crowed as his LED screen flickered exclamation and question marks. Wrench looked at Kirby, who was blushing.  
“Mom, I think it's time,” Kirby gestured to a casually dressed man and woman who Wrench hadn't noticed. They came up and took Elizabeth away after one last tight hug between mother and daughter.  
“So... that was your mom?” In the grand scheme of things it wasn't the smartest thing to say.  
“Yeah, she, uh, she needs more help than I can give her, so…” Kirby drifted off, not giving much in the way of details. But it didn't matter; later on, Wrench did some digging and learned the whole story, his mask a blur of punctuation and confused symbols as he worked.

Wench was working in the garage on Wrench Jr. Jr. when Kirby walked in. Just by looking at her, Wrench knew what was coming.  
“You know everything, then?”  
“Yeah,” Wrench gestured to a bench, “I did some digging.”  
“Look, I don’t want your pity or-”  
“Did I give you pity?” Behind the angry slashes of his LED mask, Wrench was glaring. She really didn’t get it, “Did you dig around on me?”  
“No,” Kirby rolled her lips together.  
“Then you kno-what?” Wrench had assumed she had read up on him same as he had on her, and was shocked to learn she hadn’t, “Why not?”  
“Because, Wrench,” Kirby’s voice was low, “if you wanted me to know something, you would have told me.”  
“You didn’t want us to know?” Wrench wasn’t used to people not assuming someone had looked up all their dirty secrets.  
“Sitara knows a little, as does Marcus, just that she’s sick. Josh… might or might not know, but I didn’t tell him. I haven’t really told Kenney anything,” Kirby sighed, “And now you know more than I do, probably. Did you look at the legal case and what the judge ‘sealed’?”  
“Yeah,” Wrench hung his head, knowing he had invaded her privacy, even if it was hardly difficult, “This is what we do, you know? Pry into each other’s lives. We wouldn’t have found you if we hadn’t done some snooping.”  
There was silence, but Wrench couldn’t ignore the niggling question that had thrown him off in the first place, “You really didn’t dig around about me?”  
“No, I really didn’t.”  
“What about the feed from those FBI guys?”  
“I knew what happened, but I didn’t go looking for it. Besides, Marcus should have scrubbed the hell outta that.”  
Wrench looked at her, “I can’t show you, but I can tell you,” hesitantly, he moved to be closer to her.  
“You don’t have t-” Kirby started, but Wrench cut her off, “Yes, I do.”

They had been there for a long time, Wrench explaining the myriad of reasons behind the LED mask; the shame, the familial cruelty, the mocking by classmates, and the eventual creation of the mask. In many ways they were both “broken,” except they weren't. Wrench and Kirby had both found friends and support in their underground countercultures. It secretly surprised each of them that they'd never met, despite frequenting many of the same places. It didn't surprise Wrench that Kirby had been in various therapies, eventually finding one that worked. For her part, Kirby couldn't understand how Wrench could be as good as he was, even if she'd never tell him so.  
Whatever their chat meant, Kirby seemed less on edge, finally using her voice as well as her facial expressions when she interacted with the crew. Wrench enjoyed watching her. He kept updating her work space, even creating a space for her flowers. He had asked Kirby what the flower’s name was, and she'd blushed when she'd told him.  
“Linaria Bipartita,” she'd smiled at the flowers, “pretty aren't they?”  
“They look like snapdragons,” Wrench wondered why he couldn't say something smart around her, just once.  
“They're related, so it makes sense,” finally Kirby looked at him, “but they have very different meanings.”  
“Oh, what do snapdragons mean?” At least this time he didn’t sound like a total idiot.  
“Well, either concealment and deception or graciousness. It’s a bit of a divisive flower, I guess,” Kirby chuckled at the silliness of flower meanings.  
“And what about this one,” Wrench gestured to the flowers near her, “are these deception flowers, too?”  
“No, remember,” Kirby turned toward the flowers, “different meaning. These ones are very different from deception, but maybe not all that different from concealment, in a way.”  
“Well?” Wrench was curious, especially since she was being evasive.  
Kenney walked over, throwing an arm around Wrench and dragging him away, talking about something he wanted fixed. Wrench had never hated the man more. But later that afternoon, he found a note on the Wrench Bench:  
“They are called Linaria Bipartita. Figure out the rest yourself. -Sitara”

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is my first foray into Watch Dogs fan fiction. I hope it is sorta ok, and if you like it I would LOVE to keep going with this line of thinking :) I am on summer holiday, so I up-dating will be spotty, but I do have some good ideas in my brain. XD


End file.
